21st, Inside the Legendary Battle: Stewart vs. Rindt in the Historic 1969 British GP
They had since Jim Clark’s death fought a tacit battle to be the best: Jochen Rindt, perhaps the faster, attempting to put the fragility of his Lotus to the back of his mind, and Jackie Stewart, the more complete, revelling in his Matra’s strength and security.
The latter had been doing the winning: four victories and a retirement (when leading) from the first five GPs of the season to establish a huge championship lead. Rindt was in a very different place. The ‘King of Formula 2’ had yet to win in F1. He was also at daggers drawn with his team boss over wings – drastically lowered since his terrifying flight and crash-landing from the lead of the Spanish GP – and Lotus’s impassioned development of a four-wheel-drive F1 car. An unconvinced Rindt flatly refused to drive the thing. A convinced Colin Chapman dug his heels. And the team suffered.
Matra was also assessing a four-wheel-drive chassis, but Stewart and his boss/mate Ken Tyrrell viewed it as an interesting sideline rather than a battle plan. That’s why JYS was first out of the pits for practice and Lotus arrived late in the day.